Today characters have made their way into the field of design, not only delivering the primary linguistic meanings but also allowing for formative meanings. Holding and delivering human thoughts and words, characters become the object of fundamental i...
Today characters have made their way into the field of design, not only delivering the primary linguistic meanings but also allowing for formative meanings. Holding and delivering human thoughts and words, characters become the object of fundamental interest among designers who want to create consensus with their works. Such interest has been manifested in the works of the world's renowned designers in recent years.
Characters are also the critical foundation upon which to build a culture. There are a good number of alphabets with different origins and shapes that reflect different cultures across the world. Hangeul especially stands out in the group being a unique alphabet based on the shapes of the organs of speech. As a matter of fact, Hangeul runs on an incredible system of creating new characters in the same phonetic family by adding strokes to the basic character(e.g. ㄱ, ㅋ, and ㄲ). Being able to write down 11,000 sounds, Hangeul is honored as the alphabet to transcribe the most pronunciations in the world. It's one superb alphabet with its simple and rational principles and contributes to Korea's lowest illiteracy rates on earth. In addition to scientific excellence in terms of linguistics, Hangeul also has unique and differentiated features attributed to the geometric shapes and simplicity from the formative perspective. Despite the wonderful invention of such a creative alphabet, however, the Koreans have failed to exert its potential fully based on active researches on the cultural functions of its letter formations. It's also unfortunate that there are not enough efforts to make use of its values considering its much cultural potential.
Today there is increasing interest in the tradition spurred by also increasing cultural sensitivity. Many countries have engaged in active researches on their alphabets to represent the uniqueness of their cultures and expanded the scope of their uses. The trend urges Korea to develop Hangeul, one of its proud cultural assets, to have unique images differentiated from those of other cultures and to make active use of its originality as cultural value to increase its cultural competitivity.
Thus this study set out to compare and analyze the shapes of Hangeul letters according to the periods from the formative standpoint and to identify the aesthetic potential of Hangeul by reinterpreting the Hangeul tablets of Hunminjeongeum, which were written only in Hangeul among the many different versions of Hunminjeongeum presenting the purports and originality of Hangeul, and applying the resulting Hangeul patterns to modern clothes. It also aimed to contribute to the continuance and growth of creative design developments with Hangeul clothes.
In the stage of theoretical investigation before the manufacture stage, the study reviewed literature regarding the concept and origin of the Hangeul typography. After categorizing the changes to the Hangeul letters into the periods defined based on the various books and present documents, their shapes were analyzed to understand the characteristics of the Hangeul letters in terms of shapes in each period. The Hangeul letters were also examined according to the formative and structural characteristics to understand their structures and formative features. The cases of modern fashion design that employed Hangeul typography were reviewed to see in what shapes Hangeul typography was applied to modern clothes. As one of the techniques to express materials, mixed media were investigated in terms of the concepts and expressive progress in arts through literature and photographs. And the cases of fashion design using mixed media were analyzed to see in what shapes and methods they were expressed in fashion design.
Using the findings, the Hangeul patterns that were reorganized based on Hangeul typography were applied to modern clothes, and total eight pieces were created.
The results of the theoretical study were as follows:
First, a variety of original Hangeul letters were discovered in the history of the Hangeul letters. It turned out that their geometric and structural formative characteristics made them the perfect motives of design.
And secondly, the technique of mixed media examined in literature and photographs allowed artists to indulge themselves in the rich diversity of expressions. It had huge potential of being applied to every field of arts including visual art.
Based on the results, the following conclusions of work study were drawn:
First, the typography of the Hangeul tablets in Hunminjeongeum, which was reorganized based on the formative and structural characteristics of Hangeul letters, stroke perfect harmony with the aesthetics of simple shapes of modern fashion design.
Second, the Hangeul typography was reorganized by extending, highlighting, and transforming the Hunminjeongeum motives in which the originality and uniqueness of Hangeul letters were well and alive. Unique and differentiated images were created by applying the Hangeul typography to modern clothes.
Third, the digital textile printing technique allowed for the free material expressions of Hangeul typography. The monotonous and limited materials of digital textile printing were supplemented by introducing the technique of mixed media and incorporating the expressions of diverse qualities of materials into pattern works.
Fourth, the combinations of media led to the diversity of work expressions by integrating the images of material quality that's manually rendered into the computer graphics works in the process of pattern making. Deep and rich expressions of material quality were made possible onto the materials with simple surface structures by combining the manual rendering of mixed media for material expressions with digital approaches.
And fifth, Hangeul typography was reorganized and turned into patterns in many different ways by utilizing computer graphics on the images of diverse material feels. The results confirmed the infinite potential of Hangeul typography in creating new designs.
The study approached Hangeul letters of original shapes from the formative perspective and presented their aesthetic potential in addition to their functions as simple letters. It also expanded the scope of their uses as a design material by making patterns out of Hangeul typography that reorganized the Hangeul tablets in Hunminjeongeum and applying them to modern clothes. It also made a contribution to the continuance and growth of original design developments with Hangeul clothes and showed infinite potential of Hangeul as a global cultural content to promote Korea throughout the world.